Half of college football’s undefeated teams lost Saturday. BCS #3 Notre Dame, #4 Georgia, #6 Virginia Tech and #9 N.C. State all bit the dust. That leaves #1 Oklahoma, #2 Miami and #5 (soon to be #3) Ohio State, along with BCS-unranked Bowling Green (#21 in the AP poll), as the nation’s remaining unbeatens.

This clarifies the BCS picture significantly. Among Oklahoma, Miami, and Ohio State, if just two teams remain unbeaten, those two will play in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship, and everything will be neat and tidy. If all three remain unbeaten, the Fiesta Bowl will feature Oklahoma against either Miami or Ohio State — whoever finishes higher in the BCS — with the “other” unbeaten team getting a chance to make its case for a split national championship by winning its bowl. (Could be Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, with the Pac-10 champ attempting to play spoiler.)

Speaking of the Pac-10, Washington State delivered a major setback to USC’s Rose Bowl hopes by defeating Arizona State 44-22 on Saturday. The Cougars now merely need to win 2 of their next 3 games to clinch the Pac-10 championship and a trip to Pasadena. The Trojans, on the other hand, must win all of their next three games, and root hard for Oregon, Washington, and (horror of horrors) UCLA against Washington State. Say it with me, fellow Trojans… GO BRUINS!!!!!!

In other football news, the Newington High School football team’s two-game winning streak was predictably — and, um, convincingly — snapped Friday by #1-ranked New Britain, which won by a final score of… 69-0. The Hurricanes registered more points than the Indians did yards rushing (42). But really, there’s no shame in it; New Britain is good. It’s sort of like UConn playing Miami: What do you expect? Anyway, hopefully the Indians (3-5) will have a better time next week against Platt (4-4), which lost last week to New Britain by a similar score of 70-7. A winning season is still mathematically possible, and Newington’s opponents get worse and worse from here on out. So let’s keep rooting and hoping. Go Indians!